However, when the USPS announced it had awarded Oshkosh the contract, Ford was not mentioned by either company. It is unclear why neither Ford nor General Motors, both of which have pledged to stop building gasoline-burning cars within the next 15 years, were not the prime bidders.įord entered the final bidding process as an Oshkosh partner with a prototype for the new mail truck based on the Ford Transit van, either as a hybrid or fully electric option. This means choosing either Oshkosh or Workhorse carried risks, but Workhorse would not have built any gasoline-powered trucks. Had the initial USPS contract award been made to Workhorse it would have had the capital to build a factory and finish the design of an all-electric vehicle fleet. The government has financed many startups, notably database maker Oracle. One issue in the award process is that Oshkosh is an established, albeit financially troubled, firm while Workhorse Group is a startup. That money is to complete the design and build a factory to make the mail trucks. The contract is still in the design phase and only $482 million has been awarded so far, money the financially troubled defense contractor needed to assuage investor concerns. With DeJoy gone, USPS certainly would have options with its contract with Oshkosh, at least when it comes to the number of electric vehicles in the mix. If McReynolds were to vote with the Democrats, as is widely anticipated, DeJoy could be removed. New Board Membersīiden is hoping to shift the power on the board from Republican to Democratic.
#Workhorse usps contract plus
If all three are confirmed by the Senate it would have four members from each party plus an independent, Amber McReynolds, the chief executive of the National Vote at Home Institute. President Biden does not have the authority to fire DeJoy because USPS is a corporation owned by the federal government and removal is the province of the USPS board.īiden recently nominated two Democrats and an independent to fill out the USPS board of governors. DeJoy told Congress he would be there for a long time, which some took as a mocking of presidential and Congressional majority power. What is certain is that the contract with Oshkosh is safe so long as he is postmaster general. How long DeJoy will remain in power is uncertain. Kaptur – co-chair of the House Auto Caucus and chairwoman of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development – introduced a House resolution to halt the contract.
"We have serious concerns it could be a wasted opportunity to address the climate crisis and the reindustrialization of our manufacturing sector," they wrote. The lawmakers also complained that awarding the contract to Oshkosh, a longtime builder of military transport vehicles, is "without any commitment to making these vehicles either hybrid or 100% electric." They noted that Biden promised to fulfill his desire to make the entire fleet of 650,000 federal vehicles battery-powered.
The lawmakers wrote that the "tainted tenure of Postmaster General DeJoy calls into question the awarding of this contract" and raises concerns about "inappropriate political influence." A consistent theme in the more than 60 failed lawsuits Trump's lawyers brought to overturn the election was that ballots that arrived late should not have been counted. DeJoy quickly set out to slow mail delivery just as millions of Americans were switching to mail-in ballots. They took direct aim at Louis DeJoy, the North Carolina logistics executive and major Republican donor installed in June 2020 as Postmaster General by Trump's hand-picked USPS Board of Governors. The lawmakers, in their letter to President Biden, sought a review to ensure the contract was not awarded through inappropriate political influence. This is familiar territory for Oshkosh Defense, which has landed in court twice over the past six years over contracts it won from the U.S. Tim Ryan and Marcy Kaptur called on the Biden Administration and the USPS to halt the contract so the bidding rules and award can be reviewed. Three Ohio Democrats quickly lined up behind Workforce, which is based outside Cincinnati in Loveland. Whatever transpired in those talks, Workhorse promptly hired the powerhouse law firms Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Field and Mound Cotton Wollan & Greengrass to challenge the contract award.
Lawmakers and lawyers for an Ohio electric vehicle company are working to undo the United States Postal Service's award of a 10-year, $6 billion contract to build the new fleet of mail trucks that would be mostly fueled by gasoline to Oshkosh Defense.Īfter USPS announced it had selected Oshkosh Defense, the Ohio startup electric vehicle maker Workhorse Group met with the USPS to discuss its bid-selection process.
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